After 4 months of working in the south of Paris, I've just about got used to the morning handshake ritual. On arrival at work, one shakes hands with everyone in one's part of the office. To this Brit it feels like an expedition to invade everyones' personal space, but it is expected. So, despite feeling uncomfortable about it, I follow the locals.

But according to that bible of international social tittle-tattle, The Economist (shurely shome mishtake?), it looks like I'm getting off lightly.

I'd not been in the Eton College Chapel before last night going to a concert given by a choir my mother belongs to. Wow. Glorious perpendicular gothic. And Handel too. Coronation anthems with choir, brass, tymps and that organ.﻿

No one ever re-visits code. Some large public projects seem to get a few eyeballs, but in the way that I find multiple typos and errors in everything I read, so to with programs. Everything needs more polish than can be afforded it seems. ﻿

"This explains why IBM is always buying little companies then squeezing them, often to death, for profits. Buying these companies is an investment and therefore not a charge against earnings. But having bought the companies, spending any more money on them is not an investment and hurts earnings. IBM could develop the same products internally but that would appear to cost money. So instead they try to buy new products then deliberately starve to death the companies that created them. In accounting terms this makes perfect sense. To rational humans it is insane."﻿

I had a few hours to kill in the Kensington area in late November, and went for a wander round the Science Museum, including the new Information Age gallery. Electric telegraph to mobile phone systems.﻿

Stop everything! We've found this year's must-have Halloween costume.
It's the 'grammatically challenged Little Englander' hoodie, and it's available for a mere £29.99 on Amazon:
Yes, if there was ever an item of clothing designed to ...

Just back from a blissful 12 days at Kadaltheeram. Philip and Ambi, the owners, provide the personal, relaxed, welcoming, non-formulaic service you don't often find these days. Spent our days relaxing under the coconut palms, enjoying Raj's great food in the restaurant, swimming in the warm Arabian Sea, exploring the local villages on foot and generally getting away from it all.
A cracking end to our first visit to India. Can't wait to go again.